kX Install issue

JohnN · Jul 3, 2007, 07:22 AM

Hi All,

Long time user - no problems.
However, recent PC failure means I've had to drop back to an old PC - Athlon 800MHz with 512Mb SD133 RAM and GF3 GPU.
I just can't get kX to run.
I've tried 3538K and M.
It's a SB0400, by the way.

I've uninstalled creative.
Drive Cleaner Pro'd it.
I've even physically removed SB from PC and re-booted many times.

The installation appears to go fine, but I only ever get the "normal" speaker icon in sys tray, not the kX one.

If if I look in audio properties it says kX driver is there, but still no kX icon.

What's most odd is that everytime I run Driver Cleaner Pro on Creative, it always finds files / reg keys to remove. It's as if it's failing to remove them.

Any suggestions?
I'm missing my music!

PS I need kX to give me MIDI input - I (more-or-less) used Travel Recs Hardware mod!

BR
JN

peate · Jul 3, 2007, 09:40 PM

What version of Windows is the old machine? 3538 is for 2000 and up I believe.
Try with 3537.

Maddogg6 · Jul 3, 2007, 10:56 PM

Quote:

The installation appears to go fine, but I only ever get the "normal" speaker icon in sys tray, not the kX one.

Did you remove the 'kXmixer.exe' from the start up (registry)?
I notice times I need to log off and back on to get the mixer icon to appear in the windows tray.

What happens if you run the kX mixer from the windows start menu?

Quote:

PS I need kX to give me MIDI input

Well I know for fact midi in UART2 works - and midi out UART works on my A2ZS with kX 3538M.
Midi out UART has worked since 3538H for certain. but I didnt use 3538I very long so maybe that didnt work (but Im pretty sure it did)

BUT - I think I have read about a problem with bulk dump problems... ???
I would search these forums or maybe someone can confirm this..??

JohnN · Jul 4, 2007, 07:47 AM

Thanks for you thoughts.

The OS is a fresh install of XP sp2.

And I've used Drive Cleaner Pro to remove kX.

As I said, the real odd thing is I can run Driver Cleaner on the Creative stuff and it reports it's deleted a few dll's and registry keys. But if I re-run it - it still finds the exact same dll's and keys!

kxmixer is running in the process list.
If I launch another, I have 2 running, but still no kX icon.
And kX is reported in audio properties.
And if I play a MIDI file - I hear nothing. This is correct because there's no SF loaded!
And I can't get to load them because I've no sys tray icon!

QUESTION
Is there a way to launch SF manager / DSP / etc without the sys tray?
Any kxmixer switches?

I've given up ATM, until I get my new mobo, and put the Creatives back on.
I've got some old (1987 ish) live tapes I've been meaning to master for a few years!
:-)

BR
JN

Maddogg6 · Jul 4, 2007, 11:08 AM

Seems like XP is hiding your icons for you... you have that 'feature' disabled?
(right click on task bar > 'Hide inactive Icons' - un-checked)

Did a log off > log on force them to show? - I have this problem my self.

Also - I think someone mentioned something about crashing windows explorer (seen as a desktop refresh, where icons will disappear for a second then come back) during boot up - maybe this is a problem??

Quote:

Is there a way to launch SF manager / DSP / etc without the sys tray?

Well theres the DSP button at the bottom of every page in the mixer...
And if you right click in the mixer - the same menu as you get from the sys tray icon pops up...
I dont know if theres a switch to do this with kxmixer.exe... but theres kX console too, maybe someone knows how to lauch that with out the icon??

Russ · Jul 4, 2007, 02:32 PM

I remember someone else having this same issue previously, although we never did figure out what the problem was. Let me see if I can locate that thread.... OK, here it is: After updating the mixer is gone!

One thing of interest from that thread was that kX version 3537 would work for that person, while 3538h would not work, so you might want to try installing different versions of kX, and see if you get different results.

JohnN · Jul 5, 2007, 07:19 AM

@Maddogg6
I'm certain it's not just an icon thing. I'm familar with Windoze icon hiding. Besides, I do have an audio icon, it's just the normal "speaker" image not the kX one !

I too found the logoff / logon trick for recovering icons - some sort of "Logic race" on start-up. No joy there either.

By the way, by "icon" I am refering to the kX icon in the System tray, the one you right click to view all the wonderous options. I get none of that! I just get the normal windows speaker icon.

@Russ
That was a long but interesting read. And that sound exactly the same as I am seeing. Everything appears normal apart from the System Tray icon.
I've written a few things down to try and I'll investigate the 3537 option too.

I do remember reading about an issue with the old mobo I'm using and SB's and PCI slots, but it's been many years and I can't recall what it was. Need to investigate.

Thanks again

BR
JN

Doug W · Jul 5, 2007, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnN

I do remember reading about an issue with the old mobo I'm using and SB's and PCI slots, but it's been many years and I can't recall what it was. Need to investigate.

What motherboard do you have?
This thread talks about a couple of motherboards that seem to have problems with SBLives:
SB Audigy and ABIT KR7A Motherboards

Russ · Jul 5, 2007, 06:16 PM

BTW: You can load/unload soundfonts using kxctrl.exe (assuming that kxctrl works for you).

JohnN · Jul 6, 2007, 07:00 AM

3537 didn't even install !
3538s always identify the card and confirm that's the one you wish to install for.
None of that last night with 3537. First thing I saw was request for VST path.

Put 3538 back in.

Tried some command line switches but that didn't work, or I did it wrong.

Tried opening a *.da file.
First, there was no file associated with the da extension.
Did an "open with" and browsed to kxmiver.exe. Nearly crashed the "open with" dialogue.
"Open with is not reponding", but it came back after a couple of minutes.

Put creatives back in for now - it's taking too much time testing options with kX.

I may have another go later since EBuyer still haven't collected the new mobo I ordered.
It was DoA and is in the RMA process.
May be a 1 or 2 weeks yet...

:-(

BR
JN

Russ · Jul 6, 2007, 01:00 PM

3537 probably did not know about the SB0400, so you would probably have to install it as a generic 10k2 device (even so, it may not be fully functional with 3537).

In any case, it definitely sounds like the same problem as with the other thread. The first thing I would do it to contact rymdprojekt and ask if he/she was ever figured out what the problem was.

Beyond that, I would do regular troubleshooting:
i.e.
Check Event Viewer for errors.
Check Device Manager (in Safe Mode) for conflicts or phantom devices (i.e. devices listed that you do not have, or devices listed multiple times, etc), etc.
Run DxDiag to check for any problems with DirectX.
Check the file versions of all the files that are used by kX to make sure that they are correct, etc.
Check for any missing or disabled Windows Services that might be needed.
Disable anti-virus software, etc when installing kX.
Make sure that you are using latest drivers for you motherboard, etc.
Try a different PCI slot.
etc...

I would probably start with the fact that the kX file associations were not done (.da files not associated with anything, etc). That tells me that something is preventing kX from installing correctly. i.e. Maybe a bad file or wrong file version. Or maybe a registry problem (registry corruption or maybe bad permissions on registry keys (BTW: make sure you are logged in as admin when installing)). Or maybe something is blocking certain parts of the install (anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, etc.) Try disabling everything that starts with Windows, and then install kX (I would do this first).

Maddogg6 · Jul 9, 2007, 10:31 AM

Ok - about the hidden icons - for me... going to 'My Network Places' - left pane > 'Hide icons for networked uPnP devices' - makes my icons always show up at boot. I missed Russ' last post here that was most helpful
Re: http://winhlp.com/WxSystray.htm

JohnN · Jul 11, 2007, 06:52 AM

Thanks, but it made no difference to mine.
I'm just gonna tread water until I get replacement mobo.

BR
JN

Russ · Jul 11, 2007, 02:15 PM

Yeah, I am pretty sure that is a different issue (where the icon(s) is missing but everything else works correctly).

In any case, hopefully your replacement mobo will arrive soon

.

JohnN · Jul 13, 2007, 06:58 AM

Yeah, it did arrive about 1 week ago but was DoA.
Waiting for RMA process to complete before I order another. And it won't be the same type. No more PC Chips for me.
Looking at an MSI with a AMD skt 939. Need to re-use my DDR1 RAM and AGP GPU.

BR
JN

JohnN · Jul 20, 2007, 07:19 AM

Just popped back to say all is now well.
3538M installed and running on my AMD64 +4000 with an MSI K8T mobo.

Actually, not all was well; I lost half my RAM - now down to 512M.

I stick of 512M was found to be erroring - may have been the problem all along, despite running memtest for hours previously.

BR
JN